When lasers are used in surgery, tissue is often ablated producing smoke and vaporized tissue. This smoke and vaporized tissue is potentially dangerous and can contaminate delicate medical equipment. It is standard practice for an assistant to the surgeon to remove the products of the ablation with a suction device. Laser plumes consist of microscopic particles flying ballistically away from the irradiated tissue surface. The idea of suction, as shown in FIG. 1A, is to impart to the plume particle a velocity component parallel to the surface in the direction of the suction nozzle so that it can be captured inside a suction nozzle. The larger the horizontal velocity component, the more efficient suction is. A 5 .mu.m diameter, 5.times.10.sup.-10 g particle, initially flying ballistically vertically with a velocity V and subject to a horizontal wind U, will have a trajectory roughly equal to: ##EQU1## where z and x are respectively the particle's vertical and horizontal components.
FIG. 1B shows plots of a the trajectory of the 5 .mu.m particle assuming a 100 cm/s initial velocity for 5 different horizontal wind velocities.
In order to remove all of the products of ablation, the mouth of a suction device typically must be held close to the location of the surgery; however, use of the suction device close to the surgery area can be disruptive to the surgery.